"The next day, in the morning, loading began. They loaded the cars with a crane. Then we moved onto a barge. There was another car there - a heavy-duty one. The driver was moving it somewhere. On the barge we pitched a tent and prepared for a long journey along the Aldan River, then along the Lena River and further to the Skovorodino station. We should have had enough food to reach the final destination of the river journey. Finally, the tug gave the signal and our barge set off and went along the river.

The mood is good, everything is going according to plan. There is endless taiga along the shores.
A few days later, when we woke up in the morning, we did not hear the usual noise of the tug. The barge was anchored at the mouth of the Aldan River. It turned out that our tugboat had been recalled to remove the ship that had run aground. This did not upset us; we hoped that he would quickly return to us. A few tens of meters from our barge there was another one, the tug from it went there.

We, as I already said, are great optimists, but I gathered a family council and suggested starting to save food. I didn’t find any support, and I was also criticized for causing panic. We, as always, prepared lunches for everyone, and breakfasts and dinners with our family. After a few days, food began to run out. The men also became worried. We kept listening to the river to see if we could hear the sound of a moving ship. The “Skipper” told us a story that a year ago she had already spent the winter with her barge and now she always carries several bags of flour with her. This scared us a lot. We ran out of sugar, canned food and all other supplies. The “skipper” fed the children pies once a day. The men were fishing, although there were only two fishing rods, but reinforcements still arrived from time to time.

The barge was not far from the shore, and our men went into the taiga in the hope of shooting something. They were afraid to go far; if a tug had come, they would not have waited long. Every time I persuaded them not to walk for a long time. They found wild garlic in the forest. It was impossible to eat these green vitamins without bread; I added it to fish soup.

One night I woke up because I heard a splash. The boat was launched into the water, and a steamboat whistle was heard on the river. Our starving men swam closer and explained the situation, that a tug had abandoned us, and there were children on the barge. They asked the captain if they had any extra food. They were very upset that they could not help us, but they gave us several loaves of dry black bread. They promised to inform us about our plight. We soaked this black bread and ate it with wild garlic and fish soup, which gave everyone heartburn. My youngest son, Valery, asked me: “Well, maybe a small piece of white bread is lost somewhere?” I persuaded the children as best I could and encouraged the men. Two or three days later, the whistle of a passing steamship was heard again at night. He “slowed down” his progress and waited for the boat from the barge to reach them. This time we were given food: condensed milk, all kinds of bread, canned food, etc. My husband woke us up in the middle of the night and put the kettle on to heat. And the boys drank tea with condensed milk and white bread. We were also warned not to leave the barge, because... They promised to send a tug. They continued to catch fish, but did not go ashore.

Finally, after two weeks of idleness, a tug arrived. We hooked up to the barge and with cheerful horns we set off towards Yakutsk. Everyone perked up."

As often happens in Russia, the most terrible things sometimes coexist with the most beautiful and amazing things. This is to briefly define the Kolyma federal highway.

What is a federal highway anyway? This is the most important transport artery that connects key cities of regions or regions. In other words, this important road. Very important. For example, Kolyma connects Yakutsk and Magadan. And despite the fact that we are talking about two largest cities Far East, there is almost no asphalt on the federal highway. At the same time, I declare with all responsibility that this is the most beautiful road I have ever driven on in Russia. The views opening on both sides of the grader force you to constantly stop the car, go outside and be drawn to the endless expanses of the taiga. This is what today's post is about...

I already traveled along this route in winter with Tema during the Chukotka EthnoExpa. Then all the locals told me that it was better to go in the summer. Finally, we were able to compare.

So, the first 100 kilometers from Magadan there is asphalt on the highway. Moreover, if closer to the city it is more or less normal, then it starts to get so bad that it would be better if it didn’t exist at all. The whole road is full of waves, ruts and holes:

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A small ford. Don't worry, he's not on the track. It was we who decided to play pranks and took a detour to the main road:

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After 100 km there is a grader. The speed limit is 80 km/h for cars and 60 km/h for trucks. Yakutsk is 1860 kilometers away. And here the main problem of the entire route begins: endless, tiring road dust:

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You have to keep a large distance between cars in order to somehow drive:

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But you can visually determine the distance to the nearest cars:

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Cars instantly gather dust and lose their presentable appearance. However, there is no one in particular to show off for the next 1,800 kilometers. But you can practice your wit:

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It is very difficult to separate from the trucks. They are very heavy, clumsy, and because of the dust it is completely impossible to see who is driving behind them. Imagine what it’s like to overtake in this case? Perhaps at this very moment someone passes him in the oncoming lane. This is one of the disadvantages of traveling along the highway in the summer:

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Locals drive Japanese SUVs with large wheels:

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The most common occurrence is a flat tire:

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At some point it started to rain and the dust stopped. Now you have the opportunity to drive calmly and admire the beauty:

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Kolyma is a gold-bearing region. Many rivers have been dug up in search of precious metal. I will tell you about how gold is mined in one of the following posts:

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There are many abandoned or semi-abandoned settlements along the road:

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Apparently, those who mined gold used to live here:

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Now all the houses are empty and there is not a single living soul nearby:

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Along the way we meet many funny names. Pass "Grandfather's bald spot":

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"Gavryushka." These funny names given by geologists who came here to look for gold. Well, as you understand, there were no local protesters:

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Over your behavior!

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Abbey Road in Magadan. Suddenly we came across a small paved area with markings. A small one is about two hundred meters:

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The name of the federal highway comes from the Kolyma River. A little later we will stop by Sinegorye and visit the Kolyma Hydroelectric Power Station:

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Most of the road the route passes through the mountains. There are a lot of passes, and they are all incredibly beautiful:

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Look at the colors. I've collected a few landscapes here, but there were so many along the way that I'll probably make a separate post:

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Regarding gas stations, we can only say one thing: there are few of them. Fortunately, we had a supply of fuel in cans:

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Well, let's face it - not BP. And there are no shops with goodies here:

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Fuel is stored in huge open-air tanks:

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The situation with hotels is even worse than with gas stations. There is one in Susuman, but we didn’t have time to get to it on the first day. Because of the dust, 300-400 kilometers a day here is a good result, you can’t count on more. We had to spend the night in tent camps:

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Breakfast for a Magadan tourist: caviar, squid, crabs:

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Our team. I forgot to say that this is another Land Rover expedition, which is taking place for the 15th or 16th time (I admit, I’ve already lost count). Traditionally, the Land Rover expedition is an excellent company, great cars and exciting adventures! There are many posts about Kolyma ahead!

Moscow, RIA Novosti, Anush Dolukhanyan.

For some, the profession of a truck driver is shrouded in romance, for others it is hard work. Showdowns with the provincial mafia, sleepless nights and survival hundreds of kilometers from populated areas - all this is the price to pay for the opportunity to manage your time. A RIA Novosti correspondent talked to drivers who carry out the most difficult flights and found out how much of their profession is poetry and how much is prose.

ROMAN, route Moscow - Magadan - Moscow

It takes three weeks one way and the same time back. Among truckers, this is considered one of the most difficult and dangerous routes.

About the route

I have been working as a truck driver for 20 years and travel from Moscow to Magadan and back. On the way there is the Aldan River, over which there is no bridge. In winter you drive directly on the ice, and in summer you cross by ferry. The bypass road is 2,500 kilometers of soil, rocks and nothing else.

On one flight to Magadan, it happens that ten tires are used up. In summer, the rocks turn out with sharp edges and cut off the tire tightly. In winter, when it snows, you can be stuck for two or three days: you stand, there is no mobile connection, there is no civilization, there is no help. There are also frosts down to 60 degrees. If the car stalls, start it within 30 minutes and you'll be able to drive. If not, you'll have to wait until it gets warmer.

About bandits

Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, Murmansk are full of bandits. In Chelyabinsk these are mainly drug addicts and children. The child runs up, puts down the booms (a hose or cable that prevents the tractor or trailer from moving. - Ed.) and waits for you to get out of the car. Then teenagers come up and say: “We have to pay.” In Magnitogorsk, drug addicts cut off, ask for a thousand rubles and let them go, and if not, they break the windshield and headlights.

I used to often travel to Murmansk, where a racketeer nicknamed Cucumber operated. He was engaged in a typical “protection scheme”: when you arrive, you need to buy his business card for a thousand rubles, on which phone numbers for emergencies are written. If your battery or spare tire is stolen, robbed, you call the bandits and tell them. They come, sort it out, bring the necessary spare parts, and then catch the thieves themselves.

In 2015, I was robbed on the way from Finland to St. Petersburg. The car was opened while we were driving. There was mail and parcels from Aliexpress in the back. Before Vyborg everything was fine, but when I arrived for unloading, I saw that I did not have a lock on the gate, the customs cable was cut. It turns out that while I was driving, someone sat behind me and unloaded some of the bags. People never received their parcels.

About sleep

I was traveling from Poland, I had to go through Moscow, Sergei Semenovich (Sobyanin - Ed.) made it open for trucks only at night, now we are suffering because of this. Then I fell asleep at the wheel on the way from Belarus to Moscow 16 times. Every time I woke up, I put a stick on a piece of paper. Once I woke up on the oncoming side of the road; I was lucky that there were no cars.

After that, I try not to fight sleep, but if necessary, I can open the window slightly and stick my face out of the window. Music on the road certainly helps. It all depends on the mood: if it’s good, then Kadysheva won’t hurt.

About the cafe by the road

Almost all truck drivers know which cafes they can eat in and which they shouldn’t. If you are driving along the highway, there is a big cafe, a large parking lot, but there are no cars, you can safely pass it - it’s rubbish. Sometimes, on the contrary, there is a small hut, but there are a lot of cars parked on the side of the road, this is a sure sign - it’s tasty, good and inexpensive. You can still safely go to cafes where there is a police car - they won’t be harassed.

About the “Internet” of truckers and help

Everyone has walkie-talkies in their cars; in Russia they communicate on Channel 15. This is the “Internet” for truckers. Here you can ask how and where to get there. For example, I came to Chelyabinsk, there are a lot of bandits there, I need to get to the place carefully and quickly. I shouted into the radio - the guys responded, met me and took me

People, the farther from Moscow, the better. Kindness and humanity remained in the regions, but in the capital everyone was “show-off.” In Moscow, if you ask someone for water, they will never give you water, but somewhere else - no problem. For example, not far from Kurgan, the spare tire on my tractor fell off due to vibration and our “good” roads. She weighs almost 70 kilograms, I rolled her to the car, but lifting such a weight into the back is unrealistic. I shouted into the radio, but no one responded. A guy was passing by, stopped and just helped.

PAVEL, Chelyabinsk - St. Petersburg - Svobodny

This journey took the hero a month, and he is still on the road. The total length of the route is 17 thousand kilometers.

About my profession

The work of a truck driver is freedom: you choose when you get up, when you start working, you are almost your own boss. A person has the opportunity to travel a lot, and they also pay money for it. It turns out almost like a “Heads and Tails” program, only not as colorful. You can go on a flight for six months, or you can go for a month or two. I’ve been a truck driver for seven years now, sometimes I have a desire to change jobs, but it hasn’t worked out yet.

This is the road. Anything can happen here: from a punctured tire to a meteorite fall. Previously, cars were burned or stopped and people begged for money, but now there are fewer bandits. Of the modern dangers, we can call them crazy fools. In the western part of Russia there are many motorists who buy a sedan with a lowered suspension and think that they are cool racers. They don’t follow any rules and get run over.

Thefts mostly occur in unguarded parking lots. Once, while unloading in Yekaterinburg, they cut the awning on my trailer, climbed inside, collected stacks of photocopier paper and took it away. Also, for example, drivers know that in St. Petersburg you can’t leave your car anywhere and never unattended - there are a lot of car thieves. It happens that they even steal it with a replacement driver inside, who has fallen asleep in a sleeping bag.

About roads

IN Lately the condition of the roads has improved. We repaired the fifth federal highway and made the M7 from Ufa to Moscow. Although I often see pointless work: the same bridge is reconstructed every year, although it is in good condition. This suggests that this is how money is laundered.

In the city of Kansk, a “No Entry” sign was installed on the federal highway for freight transport, so you have to drive seven kilometers along a bypass road - a broken gravel road where you can kill a car. Against the backdrop of the fact that now high taxes are “Plato”, blocking the highway that connects the West and the East itself big country in the world, indecent.
From Ulan-Ude to Chita - the road is fifty-fifty. It is being repaired, but, to put it mildly, without any spark: the bridge can be repaired by two people with shovels and without equipment.

There are generally pure Russian nonsense. Three years ago, the M5 highway was being repaired and semi-precious stones were placed under the asphalt as a cushion, and locals came, dug them out and sold them.

About bribes

Previously, there was one traffic police post in Ufa where there was a tax for travel, regardless of violations. You had to pay 50 rubles, you don’t show documents, they don’t check anything, they just ask for money, even though atomic bomb take it. All truckers prepared fifty dollars in advance so that there would be no change. One day I forgot and didn’t change money. I handed over 500 rubles - and they gave me change, just like in a store, exactly 450.

About cafes and travel

Now there is a very convenient application “Cargolink”, it marks where gas stations, parking lots, and cafes are. Truckers write reviews, and you can rely on them. The best food is in a cafe in the southern part of Russia. By the way, there are only two places in the whole country where they can cook barbecue properly - the Ural cafe in Chelyabinsk and the village of Umet in Mordovia.

During the flight, sometimes you can stop somewhere to relax. For example, on the road to Surgut there is the village of Vinokurovo, there are hot springs. You can leave your car in the parking lot and swim for free. It's very romantic in winter: the snow is falling, and you're... hot water When you go out, you’re covered in iodine.

About truckers in the 90s

In the 90s you weren't allowed to drive random person. Until 1996, when European cars began to be imported en masse, everyone drove what remained from the times of the USSR: old Volvos, Mercedes, KAMAZs, ZILs. Then drivers had to remain silent about what kind of cargo they were transporting and where, even if relatives or the police asked. This can be explained not by the value of the cargo, but by the fear of bandits: everyone had a lot of cash on hand, they hid it around the cabin so that the money would not catch anyone’s eye. Now, of course, everything has changed. All and sundry sit behind the wheel of trucks: former prisoners, romantics, even former pilots.

About sleep and favorite music

You can’t fight sleep at all; it can end sadly. But truck drivers still come up with all sorts of tricks, for example, preparing cocktails: they dilute Coca-Cola with caffeine and drive 1,500 kilometers per day. You can’t do this - your heart may not stand it. If you want to sleep, it's better to stop.

Music helps keep you energized on the road. I like some songs with meaning, and truck drivers often listen to chanson and pop music. In general, drivers especially don’t like throwaway songs, for example, Yegor Creed or Bilan - when they hear them, they immediately change the station.

About Muscovites
In the regions, people are responsive, you can easily ask local residents how to get somewhere - they will tell you and show you. This is not the case in Moscow.

I once got lost on Ryazansky Prospekt and decided to ask passers-by. First, he approached the girl, she was wearing headphones, tried to call out to her, but she walked past. Then to the young guy - he looked at me and walked on without saying a word. I met an Uzbek, asked if he was a local, he said “yes” and told me how to get there in detail.

When we drove far, far away Far East It was difficult for me to realize that almost a quarter of the country (from Primorye to Chukotka) lies even further than our extreme point of travel to the East. And what is quite surprising is that highways there's practically none there. Until recently, Magadan was an island from which it was impossible to leave by regular car. But roads are being built and near Chernyshevsk we met jeepers who told us a little about the roads of Magadan.

The first thing that catches your eye is that they are covered in clay from head to toe. The second is the wheel size. The guys from the Nord-Trophy.ru club said that 35-inch wheels are not enough for the road in Magadan. 38 inches - already here and there. And there are up to 52 inches. This is a dire necessity. True, it turned out that on the mainland such wheels are not accepted for tire service. There is no equipment, and the cargo landing is not the same.

In this case, you have to put up additional steps to climb into this monster. Another important addition to Magadan cars are rockers - additional fuel is not a whim for Magadan. Gas stations on the roads of Magadan are rare. Compared to Konstantin’s aka Nordphil, our not-so-small car seemed like just a toy. But such is the harsh life in Magadan.

According to the assurances of the guys from the club, we would not have made it to Magadan in the summer. That is, you can still drive through the Magadan region in the summer, but the road from Skovorodino to Yakutsk is just hell. To understand this, just search

Federal highway M56 Lena “connects” Yakutsk and Magadan with the mainland

The problem is that the road lies along permafrost. And if in winter you can even get to Yakutsk in a Lada Kalina, then in summer only trucks and jeeps can do this task. To build the BAM, it was necessary to actually build a bridge on stilts along the entire road. Such a route has not yet been built here. At the base of the road lie larches, planted here by Gulag slaves. But that doesn't help. So, driving through Yakutia, as Magadan residents say, is the most difficult thing.

Nord-Trophy.ru crews at the Nadezhda cafe, which no traveler from Khabarovsk to Chita will pass by

The guys went to Baikal, hoping to return home by October. Since it was already cold there at that time, we planned to buy warm clothes along the way. In August there are already frosts, and in September there may already be snow.

Vitaly Vdovichev tells us about the harsh everyday life of Magadan Dmitry Balykov told us how trucks are used on the roads of Magadan

In winter, by the way, driving on Magadan roads is safer. With the exception of treacherous roads along rivers, where you can fall through the ice. By the way, water can escape from under the ice, then you can easily fall under the empty ice, and water will flow over the ice at any moment.

By the way, the guys from the club traveled to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. In winter, of course. This must be a trophy! There are no roads there at all.

Motor rally Magadan-Kamchatka. Has nothing to do with the crew. :)

According to Mikhail, Victor Borisov aka victorprofessor was going to go to Magadan in an ordinary car, but apparently the construction of his own house delayed him. Well, Kamchatka, Chukotka, Yakutia are still poorly connected regions with the rest of Russia. Until 2009, it was impossible to drive through Primorye - several hundred kilometers of road with granite crushed stone forced us to drive with a full set of spare wheels, and tire shops and welding work were wearing out. Now you can even get to Khabarovsk by city car. Full photo report of the meeting in .

Hitchhiking is risky and sometimes even dangerous. Especially when you decide to go to one of the harshest regions of Russia - Kolyma. A Lenta.ru correspondent hitchhiked from Yakutsk to Magadan, undaunted by the lack of roads, abandoned cities and wild animals.

The highway in the Magadan region is a proper name. The highway is called the Kolyma federal highway. On it, like on a knitting needle, a b O Most of the settlements in the region are those where at least some residents still remain. There is asphalt and concrete for the first 50 kilometers from Magadan to the west. Next is the primer. Such that behind the thick clouds of dust you can’t see anything from under the car in front. True, there are not so many cars within 50 kilometers from the city. The farther you go from Magadan along the Kolyma to the west, the fewer settlements, the population itself, they generally become a rarity.

When there are more bears than people

For independent travelers, Magadan has long become synonymous with the phrase “end of the world.” However, this is perhaps the most accessible of the “ends of the world” in Russia. You can even get there by hitchhiking. In Chukotka and Kamchatka, for example, hitchhiking is impossible. There is, of course, Vladivostok - but this is almost Europe in the heart of Asia. It is difficult in Vladivostok to feel that somewhere here “civilization ends,” but on the way to Magadan it is easy. But you don’t need to fly there by plane, but slowly (it won’t work any other way - the condition of the road won’t allow it) approach along the Highway.

The route starts from the border of Yakutia and the Magadan region. But the Kolyma highway begins much earlier - from Yakutsk. More precisely, on the opposite side of the Lena River from Yakutsk. The first 400 kilometers are Yakut villages (in the sense of the ethnicity of their inhabitants), taiga, sparse with clearings-alas, then the Aldan River as a kind of transition to a harsher and wilder world, the village of Khandyga and... Civilization is almost ending. Last big one locality Yakutia on the “Kolyma” - the village of Ust-Nera.

On the border between the regions there is a police post “Artyk” (police officers live in other regions of Yakutia and come to the post to work on shifts). This is where the Route begins. It is more than 700 kilometers from the post to Magadan. This is one of those Russian roads where it is much easier to meet a bear than a car.

On one of the sections of the Route, my colleague and I waited for a ride for 7 hours. It’s not that no one stopped, it’s just that no one passed. However, usually the waiting time for a car does not exceed two to three hours.

At the same time, hitchhiking here is excellent. Unlike central Russia, every hitchhiker is ready to pick up a traveler on the highway. The main thing is to wait.

In these places there is no dense, high taiga, as in the Krasnoyarsk Territory or Kemerovo Region, there are no mountains, as in Altai or the Caucasus. In the Magadan region, nature is like a teenager - it is just preparing to become an adult, it has not yet developed. It is located on a conventional scale somewhere between the tundras Far North and impenetrable forests Southern Siberia.

Round hills of crumbled rocks, as if heaped by giants. Stunted coniferous trees growing in islands. But there is no shortage of water - streams, rivers, rivers, lakes, slowly preparing the traveler for the upcoming meeting with the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. However, bridges are not available everywhere. Often you have to look for fords in rivers. Although it happens that there seems to be a bridge, it is still safer to ford a water barrier.

Ghosts and the living

The closest settlement to Yakutia is the town of Kadykchan. Many people involved in the topic are familiar with it: it is one of the most famous “ghost towns” in Russia. IN better times its population was about 10 thousand people, a wealthy northern mining town where coal was mined by open pit mining.

Photo: Laika ac / Flickr / Kommersant

When it fell apart Soviet Union, the residents of Kadykchan immediately felt the changes: salaries, food, transport connecting with the mainland - everything decreased sharply. The state ensured the transportation of coal to Magadan and further across the sea “through teeth.” In 1996, an accident occurred at the city-forming enterprise. The explosion killed six people. The city was resettled. More precisely, they decided to resettle them - the process itself lasted ten years.

People continued to live in half-empty Kadykchan with the centralized heating supply turned off. The name of the city, which is translated from Even as Death Valley, turned out to be prophetic. By 2010, there was no one left here.

The buildings seem to be familiar - dilapidated, like on the outskirts of many Russian cities and towns. You constantly expect to see people, but they don’t. Instead there is silence, broken by some strange rustling. It seems that dozens of eyes are watching you - and they are watching. The new local inhabitants are animals that have regained these lands and taken the place of people.

The doors to the apartments are open: inside are calendars from 1997 or 1999, sideboards, tables and chairs from a common Soviet childhood, photo albums, rotten clothes.

The Kolyma region is famous for its prisons and camps. There really were a lot of them along the Route before Stalin's death. Then they began to actively close them, and in the 1960s they were destroyed so that no traces remained.

Today they are not easy to find. In total, two abandoned camps remain in the region. The closest one to the Route is “Dneprovsky”. Near the non-residential village of Myakit, you need to turn into the hills and cover another 13 kilometers along the “zekovskaya” road. “Dneprovsky” was part of the Berlag system - the Coastal forced labor camp. Functioned from 1941 to 1955, prisoners mined tin here.

Around the camp there are hills with mines and pits in which ore was mined, guard towers and rows of barbed wire. Ore was transported from the hills down in wooden boxes. Below, along the Dnieper stream, there was a crushing factory - everything was made of wood: prisoner barracks, administration houses, the remains of household equipment. At the entrance to the camp there is a wooden lorry cabin.

You can get to Dneprovsky either on your own and for free, or with an organized tour for a lot of money (renting an SUV from Magadan will cost 70-100 thousand rubles).

Whales in the city

The locals are the antithesis of the abandoned "ghosts" of the Route and its camp monuments. They have hospitality, responsiveness and seemingly endless warmth. There is this in the people both in the villages on the Highway and in Magadan itself. It may happen that the locals will approach you themselves - they accurately identify visitors. So after a couple of days it turns out that you have a lot of friends among the residents of Kolyma.